hi realsocialskills! i have been a fan of your blog for a long time, and i was hoping you might be able to help me.

because of my physical health, my amazing occupational therapist is getting me a new bed, and it’s arriving this monday! a hospital bed at that. it’s going to be adjustable and all, helping me immensely. the worry is, it’s going to be too hospital-y and i won’t be comfortable/at ease in it, and therefore unable to sleep. (the amount of time i’ve spent in hospitals for my own and other people’s health is staggering, so i’m quite concerned about this possibly being an alienating experience instead of a helpful one.) i’m already planning on putting my garland of rose lights around the side of it, and also spraying some perfume on it so it doesn’t smell so weird, but i’m not sure of anything else i could do to make it feel less weird.

any suggestions would be so welcome! thank you very much for your time, have a nice day!

realsocialskills said:

I’m not sure what to suggest, but I bet a lot of y’all do.

I wonder if there’s a way you could modify your bed that wouldn’t be allowed in a hospital? Like, putting stickers on it, or painting your name on it with nail polish or something. That might make it feel more like your bed that you control rather than like being in a hospital.

I had a hospital bed as my personal bed at home for over a year, using a mattress cover that was soft helped a lot (the bed had a water resistant cover that couldn’t be removed) and I wrapped it with streamers and decorated it a lot. I also used all my own bedding to avoid that hospital bed sheeting.

i highly highly recommend jersey knit sheets. They are way softer and don’t tangle you up like linen/woven ones in my experience, and feel much more homey. I find them very helpful because we’ve only ever had them at home so if i wake up after a night terror disoriented it helps me realize where i am because only home has jersey sheets. Also they feel like a hug.

realsocialskills said:

I agree that jersey knit sheets are awesome, but I don’t know if they would work on a hospital bed mattress because of the waterproof cover. They’re more slippery than regular sheets, and they can slide off if the mattress is also more slippery the way a waterproof mattress is. Have you found that they work on a hospital bed?